Happy Thanksgiving

I hope today finds your table full of food and a house full of family and friends. I've decided to cook this year so I have started the small turkey and have everything else ready to cook in a few hours after the turkey is near completion. It looks like an early afternoon meal in front of the tv watching NFL football. I can remember doing that 50 some years ago while my sister and I had the chickenpox. Three games back to back today as is the tradition on this holiday. Yesterday afternoon Heidi once again checked for warm weather but turned right around and headed inside.

Sadie and Stella thought it was warm enough for me to do the final inspection on my car. I pulled out my small LED camping flashlight so I could look through grills, from above the engine down through the wheel wells and from underneath ... looking one final time for where those two parts the insurance company thought I needed replaced. When I left you yesterday I was going make a final decision to either find them and install them, or okay the final job and take the Z4 out for a test drive.

Stella likes to take a nap after her lunch, so it was the perfect time to pull the car down off the ramps. It's not as easy as it sounds because of how low the front bumper is to the ground. The bumper would get caught on the ramps if I drove the car straight off of them, plus the left and right side lower front fender liners would get caught.

So backing the car down the ramps slow with the door open, I could hear when I should stop and then jack up the car so I could slide the ramps out from under the front bumper. It felt good to back out into the driveway and take a short 12 mile test drive. I wanted to see if that front grill moved at all or was loose after that drive. I stopped at a gas station so I could check all of that out after 6 miles. Everything was tighter than a drum.

So on the way back home it was time to do a high speed run and hit that same bridge with the rough junction within view of my house. At the end of that September drive this bridge junction is where the dragging plastic left fender liner broke and went flying out the back of my car from underneath. With the grille dragging the ground at the time, that explosion was also taken a large piece out of my belly pan cover. I saw yesterday why and how those parts got caught at the junction.

At the top of the driveway everything checked out. The lower grille was really tight and did not move in any way. That 3M tape I put on the top of the grille and bumper worked as advertised. All of the panels I installed under the car were still intact with everything else looking normal. It was time you reverse the parking spots back to the original setup.

Early this morning as I opened a new package of Starbucks coffee, I looked back through my blog on this day or same time period in past year. Some years I blogged on this holiday, others I didn't. A lot of the photos looked the same as today's do and the weather wasn't much different than I have experienced the past week. I guess things change very little here year after year.

Sadie wasn't going to let me get away without a morning walk. With mid 30's and overcast skies we headed out with Heidi in bed buried deep in her sleeping bag. She is the smartest of all of us.

It was different for the hounds though. Unlike other mornings they were on the far right of the field just above the left corner of my burn pile. They were not moving. Had deer really been that close to the house last night or are the raccoons back this winter? Maybe a possum was roaming the field last night while we slept?

I kept walking letting both of them do what they wanted.

They spent more time than normal searching along the edge of the field that is directly behind my house. I kept walking only to hear them running past me giving me barely enough time to get their photo.

When Sadie has her tailed curled and wagging ... the scent is fresh and strong. It was like she might take off running any second. Stella was a few steps inside the thorny brush. I found out during all of these walks over the years that basset hounds are not nearly as curious as bloodhounds. They are more interested in exercise instead of search and identify or eating.

I knew neither hound was going to go anywhere this morning so I kept walking the path and decided I would take the ATV path back to them on the way home and then walk the way we came.

I was right ... they were not interested in leaving.

I was almost to the point of making the final turn of the walk when Sadie snuck up behind me running as fast as she could.

We both turned onto the ATV path and headed back to Stella since she had not moved more than 5' while I walked the back edge of the field.

I have a feeling the deer like this ATV path that follows the back of the field from the woods to the north, across the field to where they go down into the gully. This morning I found the ATV path full of fresh deer tracks and closer together.

That must be the reason for neither bloodhound wanting to do much walking.

Trying to get both of them to head home, following the way we came.

It was a long slow process to get home. I was close to just letting them stay outside for as long as they wanted but I am still leery of letting Stella do that since she disappeared a month or so ago.

Putting all my food out on the counters this morning to get organized for cooking this large meal, I realized I must have had a senior moment shopping yesterday ... I forgot the pies I was going to buy. Can you have a Thanksgiving meal without pumpkin pie? I might have to drive to the local Walmart to pick them up. I would go with Marie Callender's pies.

While reading blog posts from years past during this time period I saw I was still trying to decide what to do for a diet, just like now. It not really a diet but what my meal plans would be on a regular basis. Not menus but just what type of food to eat on a regular basis.

I also saw I was questioning whether to blog or not to blog. And of course last year I had traded my blue FJ for the black cherry FJ, only to trade that one 45 days later in early December for the back Mini Cooper S Countryman. It's good I am back to the combination I've had the longest and like ... the Z4 and the blue FJ. I have had no urges to make car trades since getting the blue FJ this past July.

Also looking through photos from this time years ago ... all the hounds look the same, about the same weight. Heidi's skin looks good compared to two years ago and had not changed much since she started to improve last February.

Thanks for stopping by to read the blog and to make comments. Hope your holiday is a good one.

Time is flying here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, I've got to get back to the kitchen.